Stephen's case exposes failings in child trafficking support

Monday, 22nd January 2018

Update: Stephen's case has now been concluded but due to reporting restrictions, we cannot provide any further details.

‘Stephen’ was identified as a former child victim of trafficking but now faces the threat of removal to Vietnam. His case has rightly received significant public attention, highlighting the urgent need to reform the system of support (the National Referral Mechanism) for other children who have been victims of modern slavery in the UK.

An orphan aged just 10 years old, Stephen was trafficked out of Vietnam to the UK. He was locked away in houses converted into cannabis farms and forced to work as a gardener producing the drug for sale in the UK. He worked long hours for no pay and in extremely dangerous conditions, mixing chemicals that made him ill, getting burnt by hot lamps used to grow the plants and receiving electric shocks from wires. He was kept alone most of the time, completely hidden from the public and received beatings from his traffickers. “I was like an animal, kept in a box,” he told The Guardian.

At the age of 16, he was found by police and placed in foster care in the North East of England. Once there, he was able to go to school, make friends, and begin to put his life back together. But on turning 17 and a half, he lost his automatic right to remain in the country and applied for asylum. However, his application has recently been refused, meaning he now faces removal to Vietnam, despite having no family or support network there, and despite the known risk of re-trafficking.

Sadly, cases like Stephen’s are not uncommon. Alarming numbers of Vietnamese children are trafficked into the UK for the purposes of cannabis cultivation, as recently highlighted in ECPAT UK’s short film. Once in the UK, children are identified as trafficking victims through the the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which is the current mechanism for identification and support of trafficking victims. But going through this process and being recognised as a victim, like Stephen, does not guarantee any specialist support or long-term leave to remain in the UK. This makes it very difficult for young people to build a stable life and plan for their future. These young people, having begun to recover from traumatic experiences of abuse, are then often forced to return to countries where they have no family, few support structures and are likely to be further exploited. Indeed, Stephen hasn’t been back to his birth country since he was just 10.

Stephen, and others like him who have suffered years of exploitation, require high levels of dedicated and specialist support in order to meet their needs, help them to rebuild their lives and become healthy, happy young adults. Immigration objectives should not be a factor in any asylum decision for these young people. This is why ECPAT UK is calling for the NRM for children to be reformed to ensure that children who are identified as victims of trafficking are entitled to proper, specialist support, including a grant of leave to remain in the UK. In October 2017, a series of reforms to the NRM were announced, but no substantial changes for child victims were included.

Children identified as trafficking victims are among the most vulnerable in our society and those most in need of long-term protection. The system built for their protection requires urgent reform so that Stephen and the thousands of others like him are allowed to rebuild their lives and plan for a better future.

Anyone wishing to support Stephen, whose appeal against his negative asylum decision is in early February, can sign the petition to overturn the Home Office’s rejection decision.

Two leading UK charities, ECPAT UK and Missing People, have released a new report warning that trafficked and unaccompanied children are 30 times more likely to go missing than other children their age. Additionally, in 2017, trafficked and unaccompanied children went missing from care on average 7 times, highlighting grave safeguarding failures on the part of local authorities.

More than 30 child rights NGOs, including ECPAT UK, ECPAT International and eight ECPAT member groups have written to EU President Junckers expressing concern over the wording of the draft Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications (e-Privacy Regulation), currently under consideration in Brussels. The NGOs are concerned the new regulation could hamper efforts to track online child sex offenders and identify victims.

ECPAT UK is once again partnering with the Refugee Council to deliver training to over 1,000 foster carers and support workers in accommodation placements in England. The 'caring for separated and trafficked children' training programme will equip those with caring duties for unaccompanied and trafficked children with the knowledge and tools to effectively protect these vulnerable children.

On Wednesday, 17th October 2018, ECPAT UK will join partners from across Europe to participate in a ‘Day of Action’ for unaccompanied and separated children, as part of the cross-border Safeguarding Migrant Children Across Europe (AMINA) project.

Thousands of children put at risk of trafficking by the UK Government’s lack of plan to prevent it, says new report by the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group - a group of organisations including ECPAT UK.

Sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector has been an ‘open secret’ among humanitarian organisations, with individuals who report abuse continually ‘silenced and ostracised’, according to a new report by the International Development Committee which drew on evidence submitted by ECPAT UK.

Our latest research, Child trafficking in the UK 2018: A snapshot, exposes the limitations of the government’s response to child victims of trafficking and highlights the need for a new, child-centred approach.

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The National Referral Mechanism is a process set up by the Government to identify and support victims of trafficking in the UK. It was born out of the Government's obligation to identify victims under the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Human Trafficking, which came into force on 1 February 2008.

In 2018 we worked with Care2 to call on the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid MP, to overhaul the current system of identification and support for victims of trafficking – the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).

This year, an incredible 120,535 supporters called for specialist support for all trafficked children. However, the fight is not finished and with the Modern Slavery Act currently under review, it’s now or never to make sure your voice is heard. Will you take 5 minutes to contact your MP asking them to raise this issue with the Home Secretary?

The UK Government is failing to protect thousands of children from exploitation by lacking a plan to prevent child trafficking, according to a new report by the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG), a coalition of twelve UK-based charities, including ECPAT UK. The report Before the Harm is Done, stresses that the UK has no specific strategy in relation to preventing trafficking in children, putting thousands of children at risk.

ECPAT UK offers a comprehensive training programme, in line with National Occupational Standards, delivering courses for more than 20 years to help improve responses to child trafficking, modern slavery and exploitation.

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Report immediate concerns about a child's welfare

If you have an immediate concern about a child's welfare, please contact your local council's social care department, who are available 24 hours a day. You can find their contact details on the Directgov website or in the phone book.

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